One of the primary benefits of digital video is the ability reach an audience without worrying about film projection equipment. For example, a playable digital video file can be sent to others as an attachment to an electronic mail message or made viewable to visitors of a web site. As a result, business, corporations, and other organizations often use digital video to convey a message. For example, a corporation may create a digital video for training staff, instruction and safety, company promotion/branding, a new product or service launch, technology and product demonstration, or other purpose. Unfortunately, creating customized professional-quality digital videos that are visually appealing and dynamic is currently still an expensive and time-consuming proposition. This is largely because of the expertise and skill required to create them.
One way for an organization to create a customized digital video is to hire a professional digital video production firm. While such firms are capable of creating customized professional-quality digital videos, they may charge a significant amount for doing so. For example, at current rates, a firm may charge between $2,500 USD and $10,000 USD for creating a two to three-minute web-based corporate video presentation. Such cost may be daunting, if not prohibitive, for many organizations, especially small businesses.
Another way for an organization to create a customized digital video is to use professional video editing and effects software. One example of professional video editing and effects software is known as After Effects and is commercially available from Adobe Systems of San Jose, Calif. Unfortunately, professional video editing and effects software typically requires significant expertise to operate effectively and efficiently. For example, professional video editing and effects software may require a user to understand complex computer animation concepts such as layering, key framing, masking, motion tracking, and compositing.
There exist digital video creation systems that allow a lay user to create an animated digital video without needing the experience and expertise of a professional digital video editing and effects designer. Many of these systems employ a template system in which the user selects a desired template and supplies static media elements (e.g., digital photos and text) to fill available media element slots in the selected template. These systems then create a digital video based on a selected template and with user-supplied media elements. While such systems may be useful for creating animated slideshows and the like, such systems typically do not provide the level of control desired by users for many digital video creation tasks such as, for example, when creating a business or corporate video. In many cases, these systems only allow the user to specify the static media elements and the order in which they will appear in the video. Such limited user control may not be sufficient for creating a custom digital video that meets the requirements at hand.
What is needed, then, is an innovation in the state of art of digital video creation systems that allows lay users to create customized professional-quality digital videos with greater control over the appearance of the video than is provided by existing template-based digital video creation systems while at the same time not requiring the lay user to possess the experience and expertise of a professional digital video editing and effects designer.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.